Blue Streak missile

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The Blue Streak missile was a British ballistic missile designed in 1955. The ballistic missile programme was cancelled in 1960 but the rocket was used as the first-stage of the European satellite launcher Europa. Tested at Woomera test range, Australia, the Blue Streak project was subsequently cancelled in 1972.

1 Background
2 Cancellation
3 Civilian Programme
4 Blue Streak Today
5 Blue Streak in popular culture
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Background

Post-war Britain's nuclear weapons armament was initially based on free-fall bombs delivered by the V bomber force. It soon became clear that if Britain wanted to have a credible threat a ballistic missile was essential. There was a political need for an independent deterrent, so that Britain could remain a major post-war power. The use of an American missile would have appeared to hand control to the United States.

In April 1954 the Americans proposed a joint development programme for ballistic missiles. The United States would develop an Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) of 5,000 nautical mile (9,300 km) range, while the United Kingdom with United States support would develop a Medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) of 2,000 nautical mile (3,700 km) range. The proposal was accepted as part of the Wilson-Sandys Agreement of August 1954 which provided for collaboration, exchange of information and mutual planning of development programmes. The decision to develop was influenced by what could be learnt about missile design and development in the US. Initial requirements for the booster were made by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough with input on the rocket engine design from the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott.

De Havilland won the contract to build the missile, and it was to be powered by an uprated liquid-fuelled Rocketdyne S3D engine, developed by Rolls-Royce, called RZ2. Two variants of this engine were developed: the first provided a static thrust of 137,000 lbs and the second (intended for the three stage satellite launch vehicle) 150,000lbs. The engines were unique at that time in that they could be vectored by seven degrees in flight and could therefore be used to guide the vehicle. This configuration, however, put considerable pressure on the autopilot which had to cope with the problem of a vehicle whose weight was diminishing rapidly and that was steered by large engines whose thrust remained more or less constant. The vibration was also a problem, particularly at engine cut-off, and the later development of the autopilot for the satellite launcher was, in itself, a considerable achievement.

Subcontractors included the Sperry Gyroscope Company who produced the guidance system whilst the warhead itself was designed by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston.

Doubts arose as the cost escalated from the first tentative figure of £50m submitted to the Treasury in early 1955, to £300m in late 1959. The programme was crawling along when compared with the speed of development in the US and the Soviet Union.

[edit] Cancellation

Eventually the project was cancelled because of its lack of credibility as a deterrent. Some considered the cancellation of Blue Streak to be not only a blow to British military-industrial efforts, but also to Commonwealth ally Australia, which had its own vested interest in the project.

The missiles used liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants. Whilst the vehicle could be left fully laden with 20+ tonnes of kerosene, the 60 tonnes of liquid oxygen had to be loaded immediately before launch or icing became a problem. It was believed that fueling the rocket took 15 minutes, which would have made it useless as a rapid response to an attack, although the argument was demonstrably untrue. In truth the missile was vulnerable to a pre-emptive attack, launched without warning or in the absence of any heightening of tension sufficient to warrant readying the missile, if such a circumstance were ever likely.

It had been intended to site the missiles in underground silos. These would have been designed to withstand a one megaton blast at a distance of half a mile (800 m) and were a British innovation, subsequently exported to the US. These silos would have protected the missile from a first-strike attack while the missile was being fuelled. However, finding sites for these silos proved extremely difficult and RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria was the only site where construction was undertaken. The best sites for silo construction were the more stable rock strata in parts of southern England, but the construction of many underground silos in the countryside carried enormous political cost.

As no site in Britain provided enough space for test firing, a test site was established at Woomera, South Australia. Whitehall opposition to the project grew, and it was eventually cancelled on the ostensible grounds that it would be too vulnerable to a first-strike attack. Also Lord Mountbatten had spent considerable effort arguing that the project should be cancelled at once in favour of his Navy being armed with nuclear weapons, capable of pre-emptive strike. Around £84m had been spent.

The British government transferred its hopes to the Anglo-American Skybolt missile, before the project's cancellation by the USA as its ICBM program reached maturity. The British instead purchased the Polaris system from the Americans, to be carried in British-built submarines.

[edit] Civilian Programme

Main article: Blue Streak Satellite Launch Vehicle

Blue Streak at the Deutsches Museum at Schleissheim, Munich

After the cancellation as a military project, there was reluctance to cancel the project because of the huge cost incurred. Blue Streak would have become the first stage of a projected all British satellite launcher known as "Black Prince": the second stage was derived from the Black Knight test vehicle, and the orbital injection stage was a small hydrogen peroxide/kerosene motor. This launcher never progressed beyond the design stage.

This also proved too expensive, and the European Development Launcher Organisation - ELDO - was set up. This used Blue Streak as the first stage, with French and German second and third stages. The Blue Streak first stage was successfully tested three times at the Woomera test range in Australia as part of the ELDO programme.

Although a total of eight launches were made of the multi-stage vehicle, the French and German components proved unreliable leading to the project's final cancellation, and the end of Blue Streak. The final launch was made at the French site of Kourou in French Guiana.

The full launch history of Blue Streak is as follows, (Taken from the "Europa SLV Historiograph", produced by HSD Ltd):

Flight No.	Second stage (Corali)	Third Stage (Astris)	Payload	Launch date	Mission Notes
F1	n/a	n/a	n/a	5th June 1964	Successful flight
F2	n/a	n/a	n/a	21st October 1964	Successful flight
F3	n/a	n/a	n/a	23rd March 1965	Successful flight
F4	untested	untested	untested	24th May 1966	Successful flight
F5	untested	untested	untested	15th November 1966	Successful flight
F6.1	failed	untested	untested	4th June 1967	2nd stage failed to ignite
F6.2	failed	failed	failed	6th December 1967	2nd stage failed to separate
F7	successful	failed	failed	29th November 1968	3rd stage failure after separation
F8	successful	failed	failed	3rd July 1969	3rd stage failure after separation
F9	successful	successful	failed	24th June 1970	Fairing failed to separate
F11	successful	successful	failed	5th November 1970	Guidance system failed
F12	untested	untested	untested	n/a	Delivered to French Guiana
F13	untested	untested	untested	n/a	Delivered to Scottish Aeronautical Museum, Edinburgh
F14	untested	untested	untested	n/a	Delivered to Deutsches Museum, Munich
F15	untested	untested	untested	n/a	Redu?, Belgium
F16	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	Not finally assembled
F17	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	Parts only completed
F18	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	Parts only completed

[edit] Blue Streak Today

Following the cancellation of the Blue Streak project some of the remaining rockets were preserved at

The National Space Centre in Leicester, England.
The Deutsches Museum at Oberschleißheim near Munich
The National Museum of Flight in East Fortune, Scotland.
Royal Air Force Spadeadam Click here to go to their page!

An RZ2 engine is on display at Armagh Planetarium, Northern Ireland.

[edit] Blue Streak in popular culture

Footage from the Blue Streak launch was briefly incorporated into The Prisoner's final episode, "Fall Out". A part of the Blue Streak rocket launched on June 5, 1964 from Woomera, Australia, found 50km SE of Woomera in 1980 is on display at Giles Weather Station. Another piece was located in 2006 but its exact location has been kept secret by the finders. The titanium structure of the German third stage was, for some time, sited on the edge of a gravel pit in Gloucestershire.